Can the Coldness Love? Can the Love Create a Soul?
by Zeratul Luke
Summary: This...is something very very big, very sad and very very interesting...Care to read?
1. Chapter 1

**Can the Coldness Love?...**

**Can Love Create a Soul?**

"Your...positive?

"Ulrich, I've told you _this _five times this week alone, X.A.N.A.'s gone. My barrier is foolproof...our barrier is, I mean" replied Jeremie, placing an arm over Aelita, small smiles framed on both their faces. "I know...still"

"Ulrich" Jeremie stated, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder to get his complete attention, "Listen to me...X.A.N.A. is no more or just as good, the wall can't be broken from his side and we hold the only access to let him through, not to mention the only way to even get there via the Virtualization Systems. He's stuck behind a firewall, floating ten feet of the edge of the Ice Zone in the one activated tower. Forget about him and think, you have Physics next period"

"What! Jeremie, can you sit next to m-whoa, watch it!" replied Ulrich, unbalanced by a hurriedly passing figure not having bothered to have moved out of Ulrich's way. "Who's the new jerk?" asked Ulrich angrily, "That's the new guy Captain Obvious" Odd interjected cheerfully, swinging down from the overhead tree to the ground in a short spin. "And what were you doing?" asked Ulrich warily, "Studying... for Physics, we got a test you know" he replied, ending with one of his big smiles. "Very funny Odd, you need that more than I do, but seriously, who is that?"

"It's the new student, he's in your Physics class Ulrich, didn't you know that?" answered Umi, walking up to the group from outside the cafeteria door. "Of course I did, it's just...that guy creeps me out" replied Ulrich, switching the subject, "Why? Just because he pushed past you in a hurry and forgot to say sorry?" said Odd, throwing an arm around Ulrich, "He came from America Milly told me, but Tamiya heard him speaking with a Russian accent. You can tell he's totally into the Emo-Goth thing, I think his name is Zura-something? Something foreign". "Wow, with a mix like that, it's no wonder he's depressed, one heck of an identity crisis" Jeremie said, pushing up his glasses.

It was 9 A.M. On a cold, windy night that Ulrich should be spending at home studying for the Physics test; she had mercifully pushed back because of the high number of kids absent from class. Yet, as logically and determinedly he though this, Ulrich continued to stare at the monitors of Lyoko waiting for anything. Sighing, he turned his head then turned it sharply back when he swore he saw some lettering on one screen, but no, there was nothing. Turning back to the elevator door, he wondered if he still had time to get some studying in before he fell asleep.

"So, you were at Lyoko again, last night, huh?" whispered Odd to Ulrich next to him as the teacher droned on about the importance of grades. "What do you mean?"

"No one gets out of bed at 9 at night without a reason...and I doubt you're the ladies man like me." Odd said with a grin. Ulrich leaned back, trying to forget how poorly he'd done on that Physics test, "I know every time I ask Jeremie what he's going to say I've asked him enough, but...it's like just this one side of me keeps creating these 'what if' situations till I'm back to worrying. I don't know if I'll ever stop thinking about it night and day". Odd moved closer so his words could be quieter, "Man, X.A.N.A. is nothing but a pet know, you gotta let go of Lyoko and focus on your regular life, the war's over, soldie-" BBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTT!

Odd was interrupted by a muted buzzing from Ulrich's pants pocket, which he presses on from the outside, taking the phone out to see what it said. "Maybe its Sissi sharing her unrequited love for you" joked Odd, pointing towards the girl, who across the room was busy texting on her own phone. Ulrich made no reply however, his face had turned pale, "Ulrich, what's the matter; you look like your parents just told you they know all about Lyoko...Ulrich?" Without looking at Odd, Ulrich replied slowly, "Jeremie wants to meet us ASAP in the dorm...it's about Lyoko". Raising his hand to get the teacher's attention, Ulrich said out loud, "Ms. Kim I, uh...I feel really sick!"

"The computer's picked up an anomaly outside the Floating Tower. It doesn't identify it as X.A.N.A. or one of its monsters...or anything, just something not a part of Lyoko" stated Jeremie to the whole group collected in Odd and Ulrich's dorm. Lying on his bed, Odd asked, "So what do we do now?"_(The Floating Tower, mused Ulrich in his head, where we'd stopped X.A.N.A...nothing lasts, and at the Floating Tower you'd think...He remembered little obscure facts from that day still, that a wall of ice had been created by Aelita and besides a few cuts off the top still stood in front of the tower...that it was disconnected in every way literally and beyond, perfect. Yeah, right)._

"Obviously Odd, you guys have to go inside and find out what's causing this" replied Jeremie without a pause. Odd pushed off the bed to land on his feet, "Shouldn't Aelita stay behind, no offense Aelita, but this looks allot like a trap to me". Jeremie swerved his chair around, shutting off the computer as he got off the seat, "That's what I figure too, but even if that's case, as it moist likely is, deactivating the towers really the only way to stop X.A.N.A. still".

"We can't deactivate the tower, that'll free X.A.N.A.!" interjected Umi, "That's why we have the barrier up, right? "I know Umi, but it seems X.A.N.A.'s found a way around it...somehow". Picking up his computer case, Jeremie and they headed for the door, "There's one way to find out" replied Ulrich clenching a fist before leaving.

"**Virtualization Umi...Virtualization Odd..."**

Right behind him, Umi and Odd V-ed in with a small landfall. He'd already drawn his sword, but he lowered the blade when he realized they were alone but for the tower off in the unreachable distance. He had almost been hoping for one of X.A.N.A.'s monsters to be here. For something...familiar, for something like before that he understood and anticipated.

"**Virtualization Aelita"**

Ulrich pointed with his sword while at the same time looking back at them, "Let's go". Aelita stepped softly forward, kneeling and placing her hands on the icy edge, closing her eyes. The ground grew in thick spidery lanes from where she touched the lip of faux-land.

"**Guys! I don-...S-someone's broken the barrier! It's gone!"**

"X.A.N.A.?" asked Umi quickly.

"**I don't know! The information...it' all in foreign language! You guys need to get to the tower!"**

"Right" quipped Ulrich sprinting forward, linear yellow tracing his path behind, Odd and Umi keeping pace with Aelita.

"**Odd!...Umi! Protect Aelita; you have three monsters coming in from below! Ulrich, you got till then to stop whatever it is that's broken the barrier!"**

"I'll only need half" replied Ulrich, jumping over the glacial wall blocking the reason behind all this.

"COME ON! JUST...GIVE UP!"

Whoever it was, he was serious. The twisted, tangible remains of the barrier lay about his feet as he frantically eared at something inside the tower itself, arcs of energy speaking shrilly from the jagged hole around his hand. Jabbing his sword in front, Ulrich shouted, mad, "Away from the tower! Now!" he shouted with the emphasis of a cop. The stranger clad in a dark oilskin coat and boots released the tower's circuitry, "What? Oh, you Fffing figure, you know that!" Turning about, the dangerously unknown pulled free a rusted carbine from underneath his coat, bucking snaps swinging wildly. Aiming quickly, he pulled the trigger several times, a piercing tone crash resonating loudly from the rifle, "Hack-eyed Khrushchev programming!" Throwing the useless weapon past Ulrich, he shouted pointing, "Why do you fight without a reason? Why do visit a world of lies to replace reality? Why! Why!"

_Not even gonna answer that_, Ulrich thought as he rushed forward with a reverse-upward slice right into the stranger's outstretched hand, "Ahhh, so the kitten has claws do we?" "And laser arrows!" cried Odd performing a spinning flip back flip over the ice wall that ended in the air, his aim impeccable as he shot thrice in a row, all on target. The mystery assailant reacted immediately, slamming Ulrich's sword into the ground, dodging the first two arrows and jumped straight up, holding his legs as the last arrow zipped just below microteaching off Ulrich's sword into the path of Yumi's fan, sending it flying away as well. Landing on his feet, inches from the edge, the strange smiled, surprised to himself at how well he'd managed that, "you get an A for effort bu-Ahh!", cut short by a leg shot from a wasp, one of the three that had followed Umi, Odd and Aelita, his scream cut the air while fading quickly at the same time. There was no familiar blue up-burst, but then again...there were more important things to worry about.

"Hello? Aelita! Listen to me! X.A.N.A's reconnected himself to Lyoko; his tower's gone active again!" (The day we'd picked to try this plan out had also been the reason for it as X.A.N.A. Had somehow acquired launch codes for a Russian warhead, which we were all "lucky" enough to discover via a Special News Report of a missile self-arming itself somewhere in the Siberia Exiled Zone. Jeremie hadn't even found a name to the lab anywhere on the web, so it really made us wonder how X.A.N.A. Had gotta as far as launch codes. It did however show us that one day...we won't make it in time...I think we might have had a minute left on the countdown last time). "Hurry Aelita, the timer's started up again; we've only got five seconds left!" _Maybe less_, mewed Ulrich in shock.

"4...3...2-

CHAPTER END


	2. Chapter 23 Interlude

Diagramma Laterale #1

It was the night after Ulrich and Odd had run out of Science class again pleading illness. That had been the first time in over five weeks since they'd been missing for a whole day without an explanation.

The area was a silent whisper as Sissi closed the door to her room. Lying on her bed, she let her hair fall from it's holds, playing tired across her pillow as she thought over the days events, _What a day...ohhh, what was Regine thinking to suggest us signing up for the Beach Cleanup of Renault Shores. I actually might have signed up for that (Simply because that's where I go every break...), but come on, in front of everyone! Who's going to say yes? Now their all going to avoid her like the Plague now that they know she's a 'tree hugger', it's too bad, I kind of lik-_hello!?

Lost in her train of thought, Sissi had just noticed her window was wide open, wind whistling and a temperature drop very noticeable from the goose bumps upon her flesh. Muttering irritably to herself about the interruption, Sissi swung her legs off the bed, touching down softly on blue carpet, good quality material not in most of the dorms. That's what a principal dad gets you, she thought with a small thin smile, drawing the window closed and turning back towards her bed.

Throwing her shirt past the closet's open door, she slipped off her shoes as well and walking back to her bed, it was this time that she felt the scarp of paper lying on the floor against the sole of her foot. "Hmph, what's this?" she wondered curious, gingerly picking up the small square of dirty paper, it was mostly blank except for a few words largely spaced on the paper.

**Hello**

**Is it hard to say yes?**

**Generi**

"What in the?...what is this?" gasping slightly, Sissi dropped the writing and ran back to her window, throwing the window open quickly and peering into the silent darkness.

But alas...there was nothing,

"Hmmmm...One of Odd's pranks" She said to herself with weary annoyance , crumpling the paper into a ball and throwing it away into the wastepaper basket behind her without even watching it go in.

Lifting the sheets over her head, she slid onto her bed, snuggling blissfully and stared again at her now quiet window, looking for something that was nowhere inside her room. Then huffing angrily to herself once more, she turned her body the other way and tried to sleep, forget what happened.

Outside, a confused shadow flickered a reflection briefly before dissapering in a blink.


	3. Chapter 3

_Another Ms. Kim's class, another failure I'm sure on some stupid quiz dealing with the Four Laws of Thermodynamics. When, am I ever go_-**BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!**

_Ah, just the distraction I need _thought Ulrich as he quietlyeagerly slipped his phone from his pocket, a good guess who and for what was calling

"Ulrich, it's Jeremie" _Yes._

"Come to the factory right after school, as soon as possible...wake Odd up for me".

"Who's there?"

Dripping in the tunnel from the damp, curved stone continued on in ambiance. Not having to rush from daily danger of X.A.N.A., and knowing he'd have to wait anyway because of Odd's ability to sleep through the whole physics class had netted him an hour of detention, Ulrich had been able to walk the secret passage to the factory...it had also allowed him to hear the rhythmic splashing behind him

**"...I know what you thinking about" **

bounced a voice in front him. Straining his ears and eyes, Ulrich quickly turned on the soles of his feet, hands forward in an instinctive reaction for defense, though no one was there, a voice was definitively heard,

**"I know why your thinking this...I'm pretty sure I even know how the two are related"**

sequestered the bodiless sound, reverberating off the walls in an endless cycle. Then as the last words had faded away to a repeating whisper, another sentence overrode it, strong and without echo from behind him, right behind him. Spinning, Ulrich saw a face inches from his body and immediately jumped back an inch.

His face still in darkness, the stranger stepped forward a few steps to show a grinning smile and black short hair straight down a jean jacket covering a black cotton long-sleeved shirt with a thumbhole in either sleeve-end...tattered overly-long jean pants, hole-filled.

"...you're the Goth..." stated Ulrich dully, the shock wearing off just after his sentence, the stranger grinned even wide,

"I fear your ability of observation. Oh woe is to the man of no sight for you are a true foe, though I do commend you guessing correctly so soon. I had hoped that disguise of mine would have worked better but then again, you dear old Jim caught me coming back from...a dorm...that wasn't mine...so I would have had to abandon it anyway**".**

"Hey!" shouted Ulrich, anger coming from multiple places as he swung a simple, quick roundhouse kick through thin air where once was the unknown man, "Huh?" breathed Ulrich, staring much more intently at the stranger, now on the opposite side of the sewer. Turning his stance he asked frustrated and confused,

"How did you did you do that?", curiosity creeping beneath Ulrich's angry tone.

"Good question", replied the stranger, not breaking his eager constant tone,

"It's a deal, I'll answer your question once you answer mine". Pacing the sewer side several times in what appeared thought, he continued,

"Like I said before, I know you're thinking about Umi and I know how she and Lyoko became combined, but what I want to know is why Lyoko is still a factor?"

"What?" asked Ulrich, very confused,

"Well X.A.N.A.'s gone, was gone" the stranger conceded, "Yeah, till you let him free!" shouted Ulrich, pointing his finger towards the guilty. He raised his hands in mock plea,

"Touché, but in all fairness that was only because you, personally stopped me halfway through my plans".

"Wrong, mystery man, X.AN.A.'s free just like before, because of you!"

The stranger sighed, placing his hands over his eyes, "Such a short-seeing mind...I didn't fre- oh…oh your more clever than you realize, you ask one question yet already I have answered two. Now it's time for you to earn your side of the deal..." replied the loquacious stranger, turning a slight angle away.

Reversing the degrees of both the situation's levity and the direction in which his eyes were focused, he stared straight into Ulrich's eyes uncomfortably stony as he spoke, now in a slower, pronounced speech, "If you could hold in your hands a world without X.A.N.A., with Umi and your friends…would you take it?"

Ulrich dropped his gaze, only half-pondering the question as he faltered in the unexpected question, "Stare at me Ulrich, pay attention here, the jokes have stopped, it's go time and I need an answer".

At this, he immediately looked up, feeling indignant, returned just as powerful a gaze, "Y-Yeah, I would!"

The stranger smiled, breaking eye-level and scanning the section of pipe toward Lyoko as he continued,

"Good, that was the trial program, now here's the full version; If you could have Umi and a world where X.A.N.A. was nonexistent, along with your friends and Aelita as real as you and…Odd," Looking back, the stare the stranger now held made Ulrich's skin crawl,

"Would you give up Lyoko? If your friends could live in forever happiness and Aelita free of her chain would you forget the words Code: Earth? Forget a certain factory outside of school distance held more than meets the eye? If you could win the war, would you renounce the other world you fought in?...before one of you die there?

Ulrich found himself unable to meet the eyes of the stranger, his resolve wasn't there anymore. The suddenly, for no reason he felt strong, he was mad…really damn mad

"No…" he replied ominously, through half-slitted eyes. The stranger stared in shock,

"No?...No! Why no!!!...I-Damnit!" and was gone without answering Ulrich's question who had the rapidly growing feeling that he should have said yes, that strong feeling wasn't there anymore…he was tired.

**Later…**

**"**What happened Ulrich?, you said you'd be right here…get lost?" asked Jeremie with an attempt at joking.

"Uhhh, I, uh…I tried waiting up for Odd, but he's got like a half-hour more of detention still…so, so what did you find out about our stranger?" replied Ulrich switching the topic as quietly as possible.

Typing a command into the screen, Jeremie continued oblvious,

"Actually…it's more what I haven't translated than what I have that intrigues me" he answered back paced. Ulrich returned an amused stare,

"That's dangerously close to geek talk Jeremie…you know Aelita and you can understand that…actually, where is Aelita?...and Umi?

Jeremie swiveled his chair 'round, facing Ulrich as the pc behind him loaded a program,

"Aelita wanted to ask Ms. Kim about taking a college course in Physics and Advanced Biometrics and Umi stayed with her just in case, you know"

"Yeah…I-you were saying about our mystery man?" replied Ulrich, changing the subject once again.

"Right" quipped Jeremie, turning back around,

"Well mainly, what I mean about our adversary is that his bio is so close yet so far away...look" demonstrated Jeremie, pulling up a small card shaped avatar showing a familiar face to Ulrich though his face held two red eyes instead of the blue-gray before.

"Not only was his information hidden in some deep subfolder and encrypted so securely and well-checked that bordered paranoia, but the bio itself is in several different languages"

"Uh, wait...languages?"

"Yes, I'm unsure as to exactly which languages they are for the most part, but the first is definitely Russian and you see about one third down there's even a small space and the rest flows more efficiently like Italian or latin. Near the bottom, there seems ot be a footnote in just some random cipher, like a last-minute note about something, just gibberish to me till I figure what the words before it say…'course, I can't really just send it to someone, for all we know it could spell out the basics of Lyoko in there" finished Jeremie, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah…" replied Ulrich methodically, half-listening.

"Well, if you both could strive to look beyond past… 'events' and accept an impromptu truce. I think I could help shed a few details on this seemingly unnecessary mystery" interrupted a familar voice coyly, the tone slightly strained,

"Name's Zeratul Luke, at your service for as long as our interests coincide".

"Hey!" cried Ulrich, putting his hands up,

"Relax, not here to pull a sneak attack or nothing, I'm just here to try and make a deal…I vaguely hinted before-hand Ulrich". Luke replied stopping just out of the shadows.

"You got my answer then, it hasn't changed"

"Look I ju-"

"We got X.A.N.A!" cried Jeremie, noticing the electric warning from the corner of his eye. Waving his arm to Ulrich, who picked up the signal and dashed to the elevator, pushing past Zeratul with a short glare. Typing furiously, Jeremie stole a glance towards Zeratul,

"Look, I don't know how you know about all this, but just stay put okay? I'll fix this all after we shut-down X.A.N.A."

"Without Aelita, Jeremie?" he replied through a smirk.

Jeremie's fingers slipped and crumpled upon the keys of his board as he spun his chair an about-face to a blank, empty wall…and possibly an echoing laugh.

By the time Ulrich had made down to the scanners, Jeremie had asked if he'd seen Zeratul down there, no he hadn't, he hadn't seen him in the elevator at all and after an awkward silence told Ulrich to find the tower and keep X.A.N.A. busy till Aelita got there with Umi.

By the time Ulrich's other self had fully materialized, he'd gone through pretty much every action possible of him (and just a few beyond human limits) relating to the situation and had come up with the same answer each time:

Not Much.

His job, more or less, was find the tower X.A.N A. activated, then play tag with X.A.N.A. till Jeremie could find Aelita (not that he had any better luck finding Zeratul who was playing hide-and-seek since before). But Umi wasn't answering her phone and about five minutes less, the ringing stopped, replaced with a tone and tinny message of mechanical error in the Kadic Area and then that stopped three minutes later. The same amount of time brought Ulrich to the Ice Area three hundred feet from a redly-glowing pillar of white. Three hundred…might as well be three hundred miles without Aelita.

"So uhhh, tell me again Jeremie, um…what do I do?" asked Ulrich pacing a slow circle about three different paths. "

Just find the activated tower! I'm still trying to contact Aelita!" replied Jeremie, typing heard in the background,

"I'm sending your cycle, the signal is coming from the east so take the left path".

_Not much_, though Ulrich sighing, _man… that goth's offer sounds pretty good right about now. _

"Sooo, we meet at last on…'fairer' grounds of battle Ulrich" replied Zeratul, pacing slowly in a narrow arc, within striking distance of Ulrich's sword thatwavered marginally in wind that swept both his hair and Zeratul's long black oilskin robe

"You were just one of X.A.N.A.'s ploy's weren't you? No one else knows of Lyoko, enough to virtualize themselves that's for sure…this ends now, machine". Tears spilled in two small oily strands down Zeratul's face as his hands semi-wrapped in his sleeved shirt grasped a handle to a blade still forming itself via small coalescing squares behind his back. It was placed in front of him, one-handed, a black long-sword blade aimed lazily at Ulrich's heart

**"The saddest thing in the world is that I can't dispute what you say…or agree with…it" **Zeratul repliedwith a hushed step forward, beginning later what he himself would call inside his mind, _his first damn mistake_.

Sword against soul, life against resignation, the two exchanged blows as if already knowing each other's heart…later, Jeremie would be overheard saying how that was the first time he'd doubted the human fraility of both Zeratul _and_ Ulrich, for the fight seemed to disprove either of being truly human, more machine than man to fight that fast for that long…and neither landing a blow.

Then with a swing, it lay broken and over, Ulrich's handle flying from his hand as his other desperately clung to the slippery side of the ice that Zeratul looked down from without a change of expression.

"It shouldn't have been this way, Ulrich…I-I fucked up" he shouted dully over soaring winds and loud cracks that spilled across the small island holding the tower. Zeratul effortlessly cocked his head to the sounds, staring at the tower as short arcs of lighting danced effortfully across the surface.

"It won't be long now…he's drawn in enough energy to give a shot at it at least" he continued haughtily,

"That's why you aren't getting any calls from your friends, Jeremie!" he shouted louder.

"You won't get calls, lights'ill go out soon……hell, you may even lose power to the scanners at some point, doesn't matter. He's as scared as a program can get right now and feelin' seriously short on time". Zeratul crouched down at the edge as he stared at Ulrich's hand slowly run out of grabbing surface,

"I tried Ulrich…God, how I tried to give you a choice in the matter, but now you've no choice left, no time left so…listen…closely".

Zeratul hissed the sentence's ending, drawing Ulrich's attention to solely him and closed his eyes for his next words,

"It's simple: Your fall…or you leave, one way or another your leaving Lyoko and I'm getting' X.ANA…but one way leaves Lyoko with your life, don't be proud here. You got friends and family to think about…you don't have the luxury to be stubborn, you've lost here Ulrich…just go home"

It was at this point that Ulrich, frenzically searching for a better grip, decided for no understandable reason to contemplate why _didn't _he want to leave Lyoko forever, he was tired of coming here…of risking his life and his friends almost everyday over something that could end today, right?

"I need an answer Ulrich, your hand isn't going to hold much longer here" said Zeratul over wind and quaking ground. Ulrich saw his hand slip closer to the edge, two more inches at best before he fell,

_Why did he care!? Zeratul could have Lyoko, he was tired! Tired of fighting, lying to his parents, of thinking today might be the last day and the cold sinking feeling that **that** feeling no longer shocked him like it should, he was tired of this whole fake goddamn world!...right!?_

One and a half inches…"I…need…an…answer, Ulrich!"

_Then what was it!?!? What was he felt every time he thought about never seeing Lyoko again, pain? Regret?...anger?...I feel…angry…whenever I think that…angry?_

One inch left…"Ulrich, answer me, damnit!"

_I…feel angry when I think of this place run by this bastard, that it?...Lyoko gave us Aelita, a chance to fight for the world we care about and live in, a whole 'nother world of wonder and adventure…our lives were forever changed by it and for the better…ar-aren't I forsaking all that and everything we fought for till now by leaving? All the scares, the near-death experiences, the lies and stress…all of it would be for nothing and yeah there'd be more, but…I, we've come this far…we have to finish this, our fight, we started it…we need to finish it…right?_

Half a inch left…

"Why Ulrich! Why won't you leave!!! Why won't you just go home and forget!?!? What does this mean to you!?!? WHY DO YOU CARE!!!"

"I CARE BECAUE YOU DON'T!!! BECAUSE WE ALL CARE ABOUT LYOKO NOT JUST EARTH!!!" Shouted Ulrich, his head barely above the icy edge,

"You don't care about Lyoko, you don't care about Earth! You just want to defeat XANA and then forget about Lyoko!...No matter how long Aelita lives with us Lyoko will be her home and we've fought here for so long well…it's ours too! This is our responsibility, our fight because we chose this fight, because we didn't fight for a whole year to lose Lyoko just because your plan is safer! Faster! …and…AND WE'LL FIGHT TO KEEP LYOKO FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU! FROM XANA! FROM ME!!!" screamed Ulrich out of control, slamming down the ice with his hand, cracks connected and his half-inch ran out on him as he plummeted like a rock, fragments of ice around his head, the island became smaller and smaller…

Being devirtualized felt like…nothing. Like you were floating underwater without a single muscle moving, just slowly rotating in a calm, viscous liquid that comforted one having nothing…on…his chest…

…it also was taking a lot more time than Ulrich had seen it take with XANA's creatures. Opening his eyes, he saw himself frozen under the edge of the floating tower, arcs of lighting stopped in motion mid-zap. Staring down at him was Zeratul, standing straight with his hand out, his face slightly flush,

"Well, you passed with high grades, though you lost some for grace…you gotta helluva' knack for timing, I'll give ya that"

"Wha-I…what!?"

"Hmph...It was a test, the whole…'Lyoko or life' thing. I needed to know how far you were ready to go and kinda remind why you started this in the whole place. I could tell from talking to you before you were questioning that…'course, visiting the factory at night for a week in a row says something to" replied Zeratul, grabbing Ulrich's arm, pulling him up over the edge where he laid on his knees and hands.

"…test?"

"Yeah, sorry, no hard feelings?"

Ulrich looked up at Zeratul's face, seeing behind him chunks of ice behind him motionless,

"What…happened?"

"I've frozen Lyoko for the moment, meh...trick of the trade that's always useful when your short on time. Actually on a side-note, it's a good thing you pulled through in the end and all that as he was planning to literally short-fuse the tower with too much energy and try breaking through…probably wouldn't have worked, but it sure a s hell would have blown the mainframe in the factory…you saved both Aelita's and Jeremie's lives…and your own"

"What!?"

"Yeah, relax…I got one more trick up my sleeve"

replied Zeratul, his face redder, sweat slightly apparent as he walked over to the tower, clasping his hands across it.

"RETURN TO THE PAST!!!" he shouted, white light enveloping Ulrich before he could ask why.

"Ulrich! Ulrich!"

Opening his eyes yet again, Ulrich saw the entire gang looking down at him,

"What happened?"

"Sorry to say I don't have the processing power of the Lyoko mainframe" answered Zeratul, slumped against the wall, looking very pale, "I can push back time with the tower deactivated like it can, but decidedly less smooth and nowhere near a whole day like it can…and it hurts, takes a lot out of me to do it…yeah".

Ulrich pushed off the ground, fighting off the blurry vision, stood up straight, looking down at Zeratul,

"I think its time you told us who you are, who you really are and how you know about Lyoko"

Zeratul weakly laughed, "Ever the leader". Breathing heavy, sweat ran down his cheeks,

"Your absolutely right, and I will…after I nap" he replied, falling to the floor unconscious, a small line of black liquid flowing from his mouth.


	4. Chapter 45 Interlude

Diagrama Latrale #2

"Look, let's skip the feelings and be honest about what we are all doing here…this all about revenge, not science" Angry shouts, voices sound Russian, deep and hoarse.

"Don't beat the bush-emotional dammnit, we were suppose to beat Hopper in the race to design a standalone virtual world. One devoid of constant human tending, the only care taker AI it's self that held the possibility to expand upon its core programming and function as guide to a digital utopia, a predecessor to human transportation".

Silence, murmurings dying down.

"Where Hopper succeeded and we failed is why we live now in the Siberia Exiled Zone and why we now talk…revenge against the man who beats us there. The sooner we drop the humanity act and focus on the task at hand the sooner we return to our Mother Russia".

No yelling, murmurings agreement, mostly.

"You are right Distrugga…but will the subject…will he really care for us erasing what the majority of humans see as the basic floorplan for a soul?

"If you do your job right Generi, the only thing he will care about is fulfilling our task, so we may return to our homeland".

Agreeing murmurings, cheers.

"Your homeland", whispered, barely heard.

What followed is exactly three hundred still images fabricated from jagged memories incomplete showcasing the time spent with the scientists till now. It shows the tortuous process from a first-person view, all the anger, violence, wonder, pain, sadness, fear, failure and success in the time it takes her frantic rain to send it…which is roughly three seconds.

With a muffled bump and a falling pink blanket entangled between her naked legs, Sissi fell from her bed, clutching her head tightly as pressure mounted from repeating staccatos of pain, the rush and shouting memories not her own.

Through a window shattered wind rushed in, causing shivers over her bare stomach and limbs as her mind flared with heat. The pain was growing, barely able to see squinting, the colors faded from her tear-streaked eyes.

As her mind slowly slipped apart, piece by piece, unable to process roughly thirteen years of someone else's life, it all at once stopped.

Sissi fell asleep, unconscious mind finally at painful rest as the images stopped, faded and slowly disappeared, her body collapsed haphazardly across the carpeted floor.

The wind pushed underneath her bed covers, floating them to the floor across her sweating physique, perhaps a silent forgive me unconsciously given.


	5. Chapter 5

"So what's your deal man

"So what's your deal man?" asked Odd from the silence. Still up against the wall with only the computer glowing at the moment, he could still detect Zeratul's shoulders shaking as he laughed breathlessly to himself, "My deal's long…the night isn't" he replied, limply holding his wrist up to showcase the numbers 5:50 AM.

"Shit!" swore Ulrich smacking the ground, "What happened!? It was the just becoming sunset when I got to the sewers…why isn't the same time as before Jeremie? That's what the tower does when we shut down XANA right?"

"Doesn't work like that" intercepted Zeratul slowly stretching his arms in and out, "…'least not with me…though I guess its theoretically possible. I burn myself out just reversing what XANA did. More time is more…whatever and I don't think I was ever made to undo XANA…"

"What _is_ your function?" continued Odd.

"Well I told Ulrich the basics, though your mind may have been on other things" winked Zeratul causing Ulrich's face to burn red, "But yeah, here for XANA, which…is why I ummm, peeled the skin of that tower. I fixed that by the way Jeremie, case you were wondering"

"What? Like a bounty hunter?" retorted Odd, "Who wants XANA?"

"I don't know…someone Russian, there wasn't much left at the base I woke up in except a file…in me that described what it is they wanted me to do and why…the beginning was sketchy but I agreed with it in the end. 'sides…there were incentives"

Jeremie pushed up his glasses again, "Incentives?"

"What, you get a fat bonus if XANA's safe on a floppy disc?" joked Odd, "Is there some Russian hottie waiting back home that needs saving?"

Another laugh immediately shook his body, abit of black spittle flying out of his mouth from this genuine emotion,

"No! Lord no!…nothing as simple as that unfortunaly. Wouldn't that be great though?...No". Grabbing at the wall, he managed a standing position leaned against the wall with his hand on a pipe for more support, "No my sexually-frustrated friend, my incentives were mainly spending four years in a Russian icebox having codes crammed into my head like a debugger machine as another group of psycho-scientist tried their hand at playing God virtually".

He took a moment to rub his eyes, a waxy thin smear of black left on one eye, before he continued, "They wanted just the same as every other government out there; every other government under their control….or something to that effect. They picked where I was created clean and it didn't take them long to figure out why I was there and what I could do. Hmph. I was meant as a triumph of honest Russian ingenuity for eight desperate scientists and a visionary psycho to get their jobs back." He smiled again,

"I got the guinea pig treatment for some of the worse ideas to use Lyoko as a wartool which resulted in me learning how to do what it is I was made to do…and this."

He felt his arm drop from the overhanging pipe and let it clang against the metal wall, "The original scientists were generous…or just dead soon enough to leave me with my internal organs , skin and some of my mind but these…" he knocked the arm against the wall three times; clang!-clang!-clang!, "Thought that a metal arm could offer up a whole new range of 'options' pfft. Like fuckin' rockets for all I care"

"So…what do you want?"

"Ha! The world and all you humans in it, bitch" he said with an obnoxious laugh.

Ulrich jumped up, swinging a fist into Zeratul's face. Odd heard a crack and saw more dark liquid eek from Zeratul's nose and Ulrich's knuckles were bruised dark-red. "…My bad," he corrected dully, drooping his face, he watched the drops of dark ooze drip from his face,

"Three times Ulrich"…Odd, three times did I legally and by medical standards, did I die in those four years. Each time they pumped enough voltage through my metallic veins to power Chernobyl until it forced my heart pumping again. Anytime I lost brain tissue from it, they just added more machines, more devices that…'could' do something more along with keeping me alive, kill someone or just protect their oh so valuable secrets" he spat mockingly into the air.

Pushing off the wall, he squinted in the small bits of sunlight streaming through some obscure vent,

"I've gone to Hell trice and back. The only reason I have to live now is what eight technicians in a small spot in Serbia wanted to show the world and I'm mostly cool with that. What do people say? It's a living. I'm going to get XANA and I'm going to absorb it like a goddamn sponge and then…who knows?"

Odd laughed alittle in the preceeding silence, nervous.


	6. Chapter 56 Interlude

Tack

Tack!

Sissi peeked one eye half-open, ears listening for what woke her and her ears strained in the silence her room, bathed in moonlight, answered back with as she continued listening, watching the stirring dust her laying body had stirred up. Tired eye-lids soon grew heavy and her vigilant attempt quickly became weary to her,

"It's nothing" she moaned, ruffling the sheets over her head.

Tack!

This time both eyes opened, no longer sleepy, she had heard the sound distinctly against her shut window.

"What now?" she groaned, throwing the covers into the air with one hand as she stood in a slight dizzy, her eyes wincing at the bright pallor of the moon. Placing one hand against the nearby wall, she padded across the worn, plush carpet silently, inching closer to the window sill, averting her eyes from the strong moonlight as she undid the bolt and pushed the window up. A small breeze shot through as Sissi did and she immediately huddled her arms across her chest, feeling goosebumps form over her naked legs and arms. She shivered in place, missing the rock that struck her in the forehead sharply, forming a small red bump,

"Ouch! Who threw that!?"

"S-sorry!" shouted a voice hushly from the dark forest the moonlight could not pierce. She jumped a foot in the air, instinctively remarking about the rock, not really expecting a response. Planting both arms stiff on the windowsill, she stuck her head the frame shouting angrily, "I demand to know who is there, this instant!"

"N-no one!"

"I'm calling my daddy!"

"W-wait!...I'm…I'm sorry!" and the grass swayed nosily as the half-hidden stranger ran further into the darkness.

Later, as the sun rose above the trees surrounding the school to shine in her eyes awakening her, she would find some flowers placed by the gentlest care and fear-driven hands of stealth. She would discover a fresh bouquet of store-bought Marigolds. She would also notice, later much to her curiosity, several minute fragments of glass collected at the bottom of the cellophane wrapping when she moved it to a vase (Bought by her father for which she never really mentioned why). And she would finally see a few droplets of blood swirl and dissolve when she poured in some bottled water.

**Really sorry for the short interlude, even though their meant to be short parts between chapters, it took waaay too long to finish. Bunch of factors really, school, inspiration, work blah blah. The next one is going to take abit only becasue of the subject; Odd. xpect good stuff when done though.**


End file.
